A Recipe from the past.

I first baked this dish with with Amber in December 1998, on sunny Saturday afternoon, while eating her home made guacamole. NO effort, amazing results. It became a dish that I took to many places, cooking it in various kitchens of various friends and family, a dessert easily whipped up yet looks so wonderfully complex and amazing.

No one eats baked strawberries, right? Yet, they are so delicious. Try it immediately. I recommend 1 punnet of strawberries for every four to six people, depending on whether you want a lot of strawberries, or are happy to use it in a sauce like manner, drizzling it over whatever is on hand.

This recipe is perfect for the end of season strawberries that perhaps are not as perfect as the mid summer ones.

Serving Notes

Be daring and serve with a wonderful (but eggless) Chocolate Pudding or dessert.

Drizzle it into the middle of halved and stoned summer stone fruit.

Maybe even blend any leftovers into a yummy sauce.

It is quite a sweet dish, so a little goes a long way. Think strawberry shaped strawberry jam mouthfuls. It is also quite hot when it comes out of the oven (due to the sugar), so watch your mouth. It can be served hot, warm, cool or cold.

Recipe Notes

The basic recipe is just strawberries and sugar. And that works VERY well.

If you want to play, there are a whole range of things you can add. However, a word of caution. Only add 1 or 2 additional ingredients otherwise the complexities of flavour become overwhelming. Baked strawberries have an intense flavour – sort of a jam flavour. I suggest that you cook it without any additional ingredients before beginning to adjust flavours.

Tonight I used a punnet of strawberries, some dried cranberries, white sugar, a small piece of vanilla bean and a pinch of black pepper. And served it with some Maggie Beer icecream. Heaven in a bowl.

optional ingredients
Choose zero or more of the following1 – 2 Tblspn strawberry or similar liqueur
a slice or two of fresh ginger, chopped finely
1 piece crystallised ginger, chopped finely
0.5 vanilla bean (if not using flavoured sugar), halved with the seeds scraped into the baking dish
a grind or two of fresh black pepper
dried cranberries
cinnamon stick
sprig of rosemary
lavender flowers
honey instead of sugarlet your imagination run wild (once you are used to cooking this dish), but don’t underestimate the intensity of strawberry flavours. So make sure any ingredient that you use is compatible with strawberries.

methodHeat the oven to 180C.

Place strawberries in a single layer in a very shallow baking dish (not a metal dish). You can hull them (remove the green top) or leave the green top on.

Sprinkle with the sugar. There will appear to be a lot of sugar for the amount of strawberries. Don’t worry – this is pure indulgence!

For variety, add one or two of the optional ingredients.

Bake for 30 minutes. The strawberries will lose a lot of their juice, creating a strawberry syrup as the juice combines with the sugar.

What I have in mind are these *Baked Strawberries w ice cream or individual strawberry shortcakes w mascarpone. Wondering if I can use the lavender in a compound butter w strawberries/honey/lavender (for pancakes, french toast, crostini, etc.). What do you think? TIA

Very creative work! I tried baking strawberries within a vanilla-coconut milk cake batter last month…gave the cake a very different take, I almost thought the strawberries would make the cake weird. Phew!

That sounds great! I have also been thinking about other ways to use this. Stay tuned for some more strawberry recipes!

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Food and the Body in the Hindu Perspective

In the Hindu way of life, food (bhojan) goes beyond just a means of body nourishment. It is also believed to influence our mental and spiritual development.

Many great rishis have expounded on this aspect in our scriptures. In fact, the very first mantra of the Yajur Veda gives a scientific explanation of the relation between food and energy. The body needs nourishing food and the mind needs noble thoughts.

These two aspects emphasizing the importance of physical and mental nourishment are beautifully captured in the format of a Bhojana mantras followed by a Shanti mantra.

From food all creatures are produced. And all creatures that dwell on earth, by food they live and unto food they finally pass. Food is the chief amongst beings. Verily he obtains all good who worships the Divine as food. Taittiriya Upanishad